WESTON, Mo. - The Worth County Tigers broke through last May to finish as the Class 1 runner-up, but the team lost Jace Cousatte, Aydan Gladstone and Alex Rinehart to graduation.
Despite the Tigers relying heavily on their freshman class, they repeated as district champions with a Class 1 District 8 title.
"You lose people like Aydan Gladstone, Rinehart and Cousatte and you don't know if you can make the repeat," Worth County coach Cree Beverlin said. "It was really good to see some new faces show up and some young guys help out too and get points."
Leading the freshmen were key seniors Jase Latham and Levi Cassavaugh.
Cassavaugh won the 400-meter dash and Latham won the shot put.
"Last year, (Cassavaugh) was good, did a lot of good things and scored a lot of points, but he wasn't the leader that he is now," Beverlin said. "He knows that if he is worn out, those relays aren't getting through districts or sectionals. He has stepped up in a team role and kinda sacrificed himself really to help those guys out."
Latham, the second-ranked shot putter in Class 1, was able to beat third-ranked Jacob Chittum of North Andrew after Chittum upset him in last week's Grand River Conference Championships. Both threw personal bests on Saturday.
"As (football coach Jon) Adwell would say, I was just hungry," Latham said. "I wanted to throw big. I knew I had it in me to throw big. I was kinda mad at myself last week for my poor performance, so I figured, I might as well get one out there."
In the individual events, reigning distance triple-crown winner Riley Blay of Nodaway Valley cruised to victories in the 800-meter, 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter runs. He leads Class 1 in both the mile and 2-mile this season.
King City senior Ty Mooney was another star on Saturday. Already the state leader in the 200-meter dash with a 21.95, Mooney added the 100-meter lead to his resume with a 10.92 as he won both events.
Mound City took second in the team race and had champions in the 300-meter hurdles with sophomore August Meadows and in the 4x800-meter relay with Jadon Griffin, Keaton Zembles, Quinton Livengood and Nicholas Ivey.
Albany took third in the team race with dual-sport athlete Kemper Cline taking a break from baseball to win the high jump while also running on the champion 4x100 and 4x200-meter relay teams.
District 8 will meet District 7 on Saturday in Plattsburg for sectionals.
WESTON, Mo. - The Worth County Tigers broke through last May to finish as the Class 1 runner-up, but the team lost Jace Cousatte, Aydan Gladstone and Alex Rinehart to graduation.
Despite the Tigers relying heavily on their freshman class, they repeated as district champions with a Class 1 District 8 title.
"You lose people like Aydan Gladstone, Rinehart and Cousatte and you don't know if you can make the repeat," Worth County coach Cree Beverlin said. "It was really good to see some new faces show up and some young guys help out too and get points."
